Issue - meetings

That the report be approved with the amendments referred to during discussion.

The Internal Audit Manager presented the proposed Internal Audit plan for the three year period 2014/15 to 2016/17 and detailed the considerations to be made by the Committee.  He explained that due to the current restructuring exercise, the newly appointed chief officers would be consulted on the Plan.  The annual Internal Audit opinion on the standard of internal control, risk management and governance within the Council would be provided at the next meeting.

In response to a question from Councillor Tim Newhouse, the Internal Audit Manager explained that there were currently five part-time employees within the department, two of whom had temporarily increased their hours.  There was potential for this arrangement to become permanent if a replacement full-time officer could not be recruited.

The Chair referred to some of the issues highlighted in bold and italics within the Plan which may need to be deferred in the event of insufficient resources, and sought assurance on the audit on the Use of Consultants.  The Internal Audit Manager agreed that this would be retained on the Plan for 2014/15.

Councillor Tim Newhouse also requested that the audit on Mobile Phones and Devices/Usage be kept on the Plan for 2014/15.  It was clarified that this related to officers and that a separate report would be made to Group Leaders on devices for Members.

Mr. John Herniman of the Wales Audit Office (WAO) commented on section 2 of the Strategy relating to ‘areas where external audit will wish to place reliance on the testing performed by internal audit’ and clarified that this was driven by management rather than WAO.  This was acknowledged by the Internal Audit Manager.

Following responses to Members’ queries on audits included on the Plan, the Head of Finance said it was important to recognise that these were not necessarily areas of current/past concern and may be as a result of departments seeking assurance on effective arrangements.

Councillor Ron Hampson was able to respond to queries raised by Councillor Glyn Banks on progress by a dedicated team in tackling rent arrears.

In response to a query from the Chair, the Internal Audit Manager explained that new software introduced in the department to cover all aspects of audit work would require a transitional phase.

The Democracy & Governance Manager asked if resources could be allocated each year to Data Protection due to the valuable work undertaken by Internal Audit on compliance across the Council.  He suggested that this could be achieved by reviewing the other areas of Legal & Democratic Services on the Plan and would discuss with the Internal Audit Manager and Head of Legal & Democratic Services outside the meeting.

RESOLVED:

That the report be approved with the amendments referred to during discussion.